Biography

Like many Olympic ice hockey players of his era, forward Robert “Bob” McKnight got his start playing with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors of the Junior Ontario Hockey League, suiting up with them from 1955 through 1958. During that final year he was invited to play two playoff matches with the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen as they made their bid for Canada’s Allan Cup, given annually to the senior men’s ice hockey champions. The Dutchmen lost the tournament but were impressed with McKnight and the following year he joined the team in earnest and stayed with them for two seasons. In addition, he and his team were invited to represent Canada at the 1960 Winter Olympics, where they ended up taking home silver in the ice hockey tournament. McKnight played in only two games, but scored just as many goals. In 1960 he joined the Senior Ontario Hockey Association’s Galt Terriers and, with them, won his first Allan Cup. This led to an invitation to represent Canada at the 1962 World Championships, which the team accepted. They borrowed McKnight’s former Dutchmen teammate Jack Douglas from the Chatham Maroons and took home a silver medal for their country. The Terriers were renamed the Hornets in 1963 and McKnight stuck with them until 1965, when he took a year off of the sport. He returned in 1966 with the Guelph Regals, but played only 14 games before hanging up his skates for good. He has continued his affiliation with St. Michael’s College in Toronto and in 2008 helped raise funds for a wheelchair van for a former classmate and Dutchmen teammate.

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